Pneumatic furniture assembling press



April 8, 1952 I F. c. VALITON ET AL 2,592,359

PNEUMATIC FURNITURE ASSEMBLING PRESS Filed Oct. 13, 1947 INVENTORSZ ATTORN EYS.

Patented Apr. 8, 1952 PNEUMATIC FURNITURE ASSEMBLING' PRESS Frederick (J. Valiton, South Ashburnham, and William H. Hobby, Gardner, Mass.

Application October 13, 1947, Serial No. 779,521

2 Claims.

This invention relates. to a power-operated press which not only serves to assemble furniture but tohold the furniture assembled while further operations are performed.

The principal object of the invention resides in the provision of a bed on which is mounted a pair of pressure members, at least one of which is provided with means for exerting pressure thereon to move it toward the other pressure member, so as to press an article of furniture to assemble chair rungs, arms, legs, etc., by mortice andtenon, this action being slow and powerful and completely distinct from the usual methods in the art of hammering the parts together and thereby occasioning splits in the work and worker fatigue.

Further objects of the invention reside in the provision of a bed for a press of the class described, which bed is tiltable on a horizontal axis, the bed being provided with pressure members which are adjustable to be located at angles to each other in planes parallel to the bed so as to accommodate furniture of various shapes and sizes, and including formed blocks, associated with the pressure members, made to fit the article of furniture being worked on and providing for exceptionally fast, easy and accurate assembling of furniture in production.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of a machine according to the invention;

Fig. 2- is a view in end elevation thereof;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged diagrammatic view illustrating the use of the machine;

Fig. 4 is a view in front elevation illustrating a modification; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged section through one of the swivels.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, there is provided a base member having legs Iil which may be secured together as by rods l2 and i4 and end members Hi. The rod 84 serves a double function as providing one side of a bed, the other side of which may assume the form of a rod 8. The rod 18 is raised and lowered by any desired means, such as a screw 25.

The rods M and I 8 are secured together by adjustable table members 22, 2d, and '26, the latter carrying thereon a pressure cylinder 28 which may be operated as by a foot valve 31]. The cylinder 28 is provided with a threaded piston 32 on which is mounteda nut 3% to vary the effective length: of: motion or reciprocation of the piston rod..

The.- pi'ston. rod: 32. bears on an abutment .member 36 whichtmay be slidableon the table member 26, as; for instance, in agroove. indicated, at 38 for rectilinear movement: accordingto the'piston rod. A pressure member 40 is supported on the bed.26:. and adjacent each end is provided with aswivel 4-2 on which ismounted a screw threaded: rod: 44 extendin through the abutment member 36.: and provided with, nuts 46- whereby the. pressure member 48 may beangularly adjusted on the table member 36 to any angular position desired according to the shape of the furniture to be pressed. The pressure of the cylinder 28 will be effective to move the pressure member 40 to accomplish the result intendedregardless of the angular setting. The abutment member 3'5 may be provided with slots 48 to provide for adjustment of the pressure member assembly transversely of the table member 26 in the event that a particular article of furniture is not precisely alined as will be later described.

At the opposite end of the bed l4, I8, the rodconnecting table member 22 is provided with an abutment member 59 similar to that at 38 but fixed to the table member 22. There is also a pressure member 52 adjustable by screws *54 as above described as to the pressure member 40 and it will be seen that the two pressure members l!) and 52 may be located at any desired angle relative to each other, or they may be parallel. The reference numeral 56 indicates a pair of blocks which are formed to the shape of furniture being pressed and this block is illustrated in use in Fig. 4 at 58.

In the use of the device as illustrated in Fig. 3, the table members 22 and 26 are shown close together but it is understood that the intermediate table member 24 may be interposed between them, the illustration of Fig. 3 relating to a narrow article of furniture, such as a chair back or the like. The pressure members 40 and 52 have been adjusted to the required angles and gauge members 60 have been placed on the tables or on the rods l4 and I3 as the case may be, these gauge members having gauges 82 positionable where desired so as to position the rungs 64, it being remember-ed that the tables 22 and 26 are inclined so that the rungs rest on the gauges. The members to be connected are indicated at 66, these members having mortices 68 already prepared, are laid in the proper position, and then it is merely necessary to operate the valve 30 in order to press the members together slowly but power- 3 fully so as to join the rungs 60 to the members 56, in the absence of manual hammering, etc.

It is to be understood that this invention may be carried out in many difierent ways, one of which is illustrated in Fig. 4, wherein there is shown a table 10, a power cylinder 12, a power operated abutment 14, and an adjustable abutment [6 having a pressure member 18 angularly adjustable by screws 80 in the manner described above as to the pressure members 40 and 52. In the Fig. 3 showing, the shaped blocks 56 were not necessary but in the Fig. 4 showing the block 58 is used in order to apply pressure evenly to the curved chair member 82.

It will be seen that this invention provides a relatively simple mechanism for the better and faster production of furniture with less fatigue to the operator and that the present press is ad justable for an infinite variety of sizes and kinds of articles of furniture to be assembled.

Having thus described our invention and the advantages thereof, we do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed otherwise than as set forth in the claims, but what we claim is:

1. A furniture assembly press comprising an inclined bed, a power cylinder thereon, a piston rod for the cylinder, an abutment plate on the rod movableparallel to the bed, a head, means on the plate at each side of the piston rod adjustably securing the head to the plate for adjusted angular disposition with relation thereto, said head being movable parallel to the plane of 4 the bed, and a second head in opposition to the first-named head.

2. A furniture assembly press comprising an inclined bed, a power cylinder thereon, a piston rod for the cylinder, an abutment plate on the rod movable parallel to the bed, a head, means on the plate at each side of the piston rod adjustably securing the head to the plate for adjusted angular disposition with relation thereto, said head being movable parallel to the plane of the bed, a second plate on the bed, and an adjustable head on the second plate, the heads facing each other and capable of pressing and assembling a frame of angular side formation.

FREDERICK C. VALITON. WILLIAM H. HOBBY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 303,909 Bancroft Aug. 16, 1884 600,617 Janowski Mar. 15, 1898 619,869 Cronin Feb. 21, 1899 811,456 Thurston Jan. 30, 1906 893,875 Schneider July 21, 1908 1,348,148 Bergstrom Aug. 3, 1920 1,833,355 Dahms Nov. 24, 1931 2,253,713 Lancaster Aug. 26, 1941 2,323,141 Lancaster June 29, 1943 

